The Batfamily's Season 3
by Zenny01
Summary: Basically, I had an eight-hour drive up to North Carolina and I randomly got inspired to write my own version of season three. This takes place a few months after the end of season 2. I like the idea of a Batfamily centered season of young justice so here it goes. Please read, review, and enjoy!


_**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS OR ANYTHING. THIS STUFF BELONGS TO DC. NOT ME. **_

**Hi everyone! So instead of continuing the multitude of other stories I have started, I decided to write this. I was pretty inspired at the moment and I like the premise of this fic so I will probably continue it. And if you celebrate Christmas, Merry Day After Christmas! Let me know what you think!**

Barbara Gordon sighed as she stared out the large windows of the watchtower. She loved this spot on the satellite. You could see the entire planet from up there. The people that the team fought to protect were all down on the surface, but sometimes it was good to distance yourself. Plus, ever since he left this was the closest she could be to Dick. She really missed him. They'd been best friends for so long always sharing everything with each other, and then he left. He hadn't told anyone where he was going. He didn't even say goodbye to Bruce or Tim… or her.

She understood why he had to leave. Wally was his best friend, his brother. And after Jason… he was broken. He needed a break to collect his thoughts, but he never contacted the team. It worried her that he was alone and broken. Then again, no one had recovered. The last few months had been really hard on everyone. Bart walked with a huge weight on his shoulders, as if burdened by the responsibility that now rested on him. Kaldur was a lot less playful now, not that he'd ever been particularly playful to begin with.

But Artemis was the worst off of course. She and Wally had been happy together, which was a first for the former assassin. He brought out the best in her and always had. Barbara had heard stories of their epic tale from enemies to lovers. Its actually ironic. They'd left the business to avoid this exact situation, and even though they tried to stay away it still killed Wally in the end.

Barbara had connected with Artemis deeply since the incident. The blonde had needed a shoulder to cry on and Barbara couldn't sit by as everyone, with the exception of Kaldur, either treated her with sympathy or with wariness. She knew that after losing someone important to you, you hated sympathy. It didn't matter that there was nothing you could have done or that they wouldn't have wanted you to be sad. Losing someone meant an unspeakable pain that most of the other members on the team just didn't understand. Honestly, she hoped they never would.

"Hey," Artemis said suddenly appearing next to the red head. She was wearing a loose tank top with some sweatpants, her golden locks bouncing off of her shoulders. She handed Barbara a steaming hot cup of coffee as she approached standing next to her friend sadly. "How are you doing?"

"I should be asking you that," Barbara responded with a small twitch of her lips, accepting the coffee and bringing the hot liquid to her lips.

"Yeah well," Artemis shrugged trailing off. She gestured out the window before continuing, "You're the one who's been standing here for over two hours." Barbara's eyes widened for a second before she schooled her expression. She hadn't realized she'd been there for so long.

"I was just thinking," she replied honestly taking one more glance into space before turning around to face her friend. "With Bart and Jaime up here making a racket all the time, it's hard to do sometimes." Artemis laughed a genuine smile appearing on her lips. It was the first one in while. She hadn't really been smiling ever since Wally's death and Dick's departure. It looked like she'd aged a few years in the span of a few months.

"That's fair," Artemis agreed. Turning around and walking to the island in the kitchen she sat down on one of the stools and waited for Barbara to take the other. "Have you heard from Dick?" she asked hopefully. Dick was like a brother to her. Before she'd left the team with Wally they had been really close and even after they'd never lost contact. Barbara hated to hurt her friend, but she shook her head subtly. It was enough to communicate the point.

"Still nothing," Barbara responded quietly. "He's probably still grieving."

"So am I," Artemis shot back. Her eyes showed numerous emotions. Anger, Despair, Grief. She took a steadying breath before continuing. "I miss him. It kills me to know he won't reach out."

"I know," Barbara replied. "Me too, but I tried everything. He's not coming back right now. I can't even find him." Artemis bit her lower lip and blinked back a tear before straightening her back and replacing the mask she too often wore around the rookies.

"Kaldur said we probably won't have a mission tomorrow. So he wants the two of us to run training in the morning," she said changing the topic.

"Why us?" Barbara asked following the topic change without complaint.

"Well we are some of the better fighters on this team," Artemis said with a smirk.

"Good point," she replied with a matching smirk. "So what were you thinking? Start with some running, then sparring, then the obstacle course?"

"That sounds like a good practice," She agreed before her eyes began to sparkle with mischief.

"Wait a second I know that look," Barbara said teasingly. "What are you plotting?" Artemis gasped dramatically feigning a look of innocence.

"Who? Me?"

Barbara laughed playfully shoving Artemis off the stool. The two girls laughed and talked for an hour before Barbara felt the familiar buzz of her phone. Excusing herself she went into the hallway and picked up the call.

"Hey Bruce," She said as soon as the line connected.

"Barbara, you're needed in Gotham. Come immediately," He said gruffly before ending the call.

"Big bad bats calling you?" Artemis asked standing behind her in the hallway.

"Yeah. Whatever it is this time I hope its quick. Can't leave you to train the team alone. God knows how many of them would walk out alive," Barbara responded laughing.

"See you tomorrow, Barbara," Artemis responded smiling as well. She pulled her friend into a hug before turning around and going back to her room on the tower.

Barbara smiled as she watched her friend walk away. Maybe things were bad, but they seemed to be getting better.

"_You're the light in the darkness of this whole biz,"_ she remembered Dick telling her once. She smiled as she thought of that night. It had been before everything went to hell. Before Jason. Before Wally. She'd only just started, and Dick had still been young and energetic. The three of them, her, Dick, and Bruce, had just gone up against Talia and Ra's Al Ghoul. God that was over ten years ago now. The whole family had been standing in the cave relaxing. Bruce had turned in early that night and she and Dick stayed up until one am trading stories and secrets. It was one of the best nights of her life.

She couldn't get distracted by that right now. Bruce needed her for some reason so she couldn't go home with her head in the clouds. Gathering herself she walked over to the transporters and set the coordinates for Gotham. In seconds, she found herself materializing in a small phone booth in the dark and grimy alley near Gotham Academy. She calmly stepped outside and walked over to her bike which was surprisingly still there and untouched. Every time she left, she always thought she'd come back to an empty alley or missing tires, but so far, she'd been lucky.

Hopping on, she fastened the helmet on her head and sped back to Wayne Manor. It didn't take too long to arrive. Pulling into the cave she parked the bike next to the batmobile and walked over to the computers. Bruce sat there staring at the computer in front of him.

"What's up?" she asked coming up next to him and looking at the screen. There were two photos in front of him. The first was the scene of a drug bust down by crime alley. Dead bodies littered the floor and blood was pooling everywhere. The scene was gruesome, but not quite as bad as the next photo.

It was a drug lord, or the remains of one. The head was completely detached from the lifeless corpse with a bullet hole located square in the middle of his forehead. The body was lying in a pool of blood on a table that had been broken in two. White powder was littering the area around him.

"Oh my god," Barbara stuttered her breaths shaking as she inhaled. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't know," Bruce replied. "That's what worries me. Commissioner Gordon gave this to me earlier tonight. It wasn't the police."

"My dad is involved with this?" Barbara asked worriedly.

"Not directly. He handed the case over to me, unofficially of course. I've been going over everything in the crime scene and something doesn't seem to make sense. Take a look at the second photo."

"I'd rather not," she said her face somewhat pale. "But I think I know what you mean. The first photo made sense, in a sick twisted kind of way. But the guy in the second one, he was already dead. Why cut off his head?"

"Precisely. I'm headed up to the Watchtower for a founder's meeting. I was hoping you could do a little bit of digging. You're even better than Dick was with computers."

Barbara nodded as Bruce stood up. "I'll start working on it right away."

"Thank you," Her mentor replied before walking over to the batmobile and driving away without another word. Barbara turned her attention back to the screen trying not to throw up at the sight of the murders. She quickly closed out of them and instead began to hack into the city's network. She was in in a matter of minutes. Risking it, she glanced back at the photos and found the timestamp in the bottom left corner and inputted that into the search algorithm she was writing. She added in the address of the warehouse and a five-mile radius before allowing the program to run. It would probably take a little while to load all the way, so she decided to take advantage of her unrestricted access to the bat computer. She pulled up the search she'd been running on her tablet for Dick and transferred the data ensuring to put it on a private server so Bruce wouldn't have access.

With both programs running, she began to relax. Pulling up an episode of her favorite tv show on her tablet, she put her feet up on the table and plugged in her earbuds. It was going to be a long night. She watched around five episodes before the computer began to beep alerting her that one of the programs was done. Racing over she felt her hope diminish slightly when she saw the search results for Dick were inconclusive. The other search however, turned out to be a lot more fruitful.

All the video cameras in the actual warehouse had been either disabled or shot without getting a clear shot of the perpetrator, however it seemed he got more careless after he left the vicinity. A camera a few blocks down caught a figure on a bike racing down the street about ten minutes after the massacre. He wore a brown leather jacket with a few holsters that carried guns and ammunition. But the most concerning thing was the red helmet which rested on his head. It was reminiscent of the original costume of the Joker, before he went insane.

"Shit," Barbara muttered to herself under her breath. This was really bad. The Joker was one of the worst villains in the world. He had come closer than anyone to killing the bat, with the exception of maybe Bane. He killed Jason, the boy she thought of as a little brother. Taking out her phone, she dialed Bruce's number. He may be in a meeting with the League, but this took priority.

"What?" Batman's gruff voice spoke through the phone. He was clearly irritated that his meeting with the other League members was interrupted, but he didn't say anything.

"That thing you asked me to look into," Barbara said careful not to reveal any details, "You need to get here now." A grunt was all Barbara got in reply before the line closed. He was on his way. Pulling her chair up closer to the computer, Barbara began to try and trace the location of the Red Hood. She started with the camera her search algorithm came up with and then tracked him back to somewhere in the East End before she lost him.

"Dammit," she cursed as she tried again only to find the same thing. Moments later the roar of the engine of the Batmobile roared as the vehicle came to a stop in the cave. Bruce jumped out of the car a moment later, removing his cowl as he approached the screen.

"What did you find?" he asked.

Instead of answering, Barbara pulled up the footage replaying it a few times. She watched as Bruce's face morphed into one of recognition. Slowing the footage down, she enhanced the image and froze the screen showing the man dressed like the Red Hood.

"The Joker is in Arkham," Batman said firmly. "So, who is this?"

"That I don't know," Barbara responded. "All I know is that I could track him until he got into the East End. After that he disappears."

"Well if it's he's in the East End, I know one person that will be able to tell me more about them," Bruce responded going back to the batmobile and reapplying his mask.

"Say hi to Selina for me," Barbara responded. She knew that had to be where he was going. Bruce nodded before speeding out of the batcave leaving Barbara there alone again.

"Miss Gordon," the unmistakable voice of Alfred came from behind her. How he managed to sneak up on everyone in the batfamily, she'd never know. "I believe you father will be expecting you to return early tonight," The butler said warmly.

"I know Alfie. Tonight is ice cream night," she said grabbing her things. "I'll be back tomorrow though to help Bruce bring down whoever this guy is."

"I shall see you then," Alfred responded before handing her a box. She peeked inside and gave the older man a big smile.

"Thank you. You know my dad loves your cookies," Barbara smiled putting the box in the back of her bike. "See you later."

With that, she pulled the helmet over her face and raced home. She arrived around ten minutes later, grabbing her purse and the cookies she went up to the apartment that she and her father shared.

"Hi dad," Barbara said as she walked in the door. Jim was sitting on the couch and turned when he heard his daughter's voice.

"Hi baby. What do you got there?" he asked noticing the box.

"I was visiting Tim," she lied smoothly. This was the one part of the job she hated. She and her dad had always been close. Keeping this secret from him, it was hard. But he'd never let her be batgirl if he knew. "These are from Alfred."

"That man knows I love his cookies," Jim replied laughing. He opened the box and took a large bite of the first cookie he could grab. "How you doing sweetie?"

"I'm good. Just ended up hanging with some friends today," she responded grabbing a cookie of her own. "Anything new at the precinct?"

"Same old, same old. The cops here are so corrupt, sometimes I wonder why we stay in Gotham. "But it's gotta get done you know?"

"I know dad," Barbara said opening the fridge and getting out ice cream. Her dad pulled two spoons from the drawer and the pair sat on the couch.

"So how are your friends doing?" He asked her. Barbara considered her answer. She couldn't exactly tell him everything, but she could use his advice.

"Not really good to be honest," She decided on taking a bite of Rocky Road. "My friend Artemis, I think you remember her from Gotham Academy." Jim nodded gesturing for his daughter to continue. "Her boyfriend of five years passed away recently. He and Dick were really close. Both of them took it hard."

"Have they talked to you about it?" Jim asked.

"I've talked to Artemis a lot. I may not have been as close to him as she was but, we helped each other out."

"And Dick?"

Barbara looked up at her dad her heart aching as she continued.

"He left Gotham. I'm not really sure where he went. I think he started out in Bludhaven but I haven't heard from him in months."

"Everyone grieves differently, Barbara. Maybe he just needed some time off," Jim suggested.

"I know its just," Barbara paused shifting in her seat. "I miss him," she said feeling more vulnerable than she was comfortable with.

"It's going to be ok," Jim said pulling her into a hug. "He'll come back."

Barbara felt a single tear go down her cheek as her father spoke. She hoped he came back soon. Nothing was the same without him.

**Author's Note:**** So what do you think? Please leave a review and let me know. I will try to update in the next couple days. Until next time!**


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